"STRIVE to enter by the Narrow Gate" (Lk. 13:24) “the gate not used by souls whose twisted love attempts to make the crooked way seem straight.” (Purgatorio, 10.1-3)

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Is Jesus Praying Proof He Isn't God?

While surfing the internet the other day (people do still "surf" the internet, don't they?) and came across an anti-Catholic blog going by the misnomer "Unveil the Truth" where I found the following argument via meme:

This supposedly devastating line of attack seeks to undermine the Holy Catholic Faith by claiming that Jesus, by praying to God the Father, proves that He isn't Himself God, thus (supposedly) undermining the Catholic Faith (of course this argument would undermine all Christianity, including Protestantism, but leave that to the side, the author seems unaware of the irony.)

What should a Catholic (or even a non-Catholic Christian) make of such an argument? Does Jesus' prayer (which we have looked at here on the blog - HERE for example) disprove His divinity? Does it "not make sense" for a divine Jesus "to pray to himself (sic)?"

There's a few different levels of misunderstanding that need addressed as we look at this problem. First, Jesus is both fully divine (thus God) and fully human (thus man). It is only because of this "hypostatic union" that Jesus can save man (because He is a man) by offering an eternal sacrifice of infinite worth (because He is God). Jesus isn't just divine, He is also human. It is through His human nature that He has human needs, needs that He wouldn't have if He was just divine. This is why Jesus, in His human nature, had a need to sleep, to eat, could feel pain and sorrow, and needed to pray. Jesus, because He became a man (i.e. He didn't just take on a human shape, but assumed a full human nature) became able to do all the things that all men can. He was, as the Bible tells us, like us in all things - except sin (cf. Heb 4:15). "All things" would include the ability to pray.

That takes care of whether Jesus, a divine Jesus, could pray, but leaves unanswered the main charge of the meme - that it is nonsense, indeed a "waste of time," for Jesus to pray to Himself. Of course, as the meme itself suggests, Jesus doesn't pray to Himself at all, rather He prays to God the Father (i.e. He doesn't pray to God the Son, He doesn't pray to Himself). Jesus' prayer is always directed to another person - the First Person of the Trinity - and is never directed toward Himself. Jesus' prayer, then, is a part of His communion with His Father, a reflection of their eternal heavenly communion, something which could never be a "waste of time."

Which may make one wonder why exactly Jesus (being eternal and thus not bound by time) ought to be so concerned with not "wasting time." Is Jesus working at Domino's, needing to make sure your pizza is delivered hot? Is He crunched by the clock of an eight hour work day? Jesus, the author of time, needed worry about "wasting time" at all even if praying to His Father was a waste of time, which it demonstrably isn't!

The author of "Unveil the Truth" lacks even a rudimentary understanding of the very doctrine he is trying to attack Catholics for believing, the doctrine of the Trinity. Admittedly, this is a difficult doctrine to understand, one which we can never fully understand in fact, but one which most middle schoolers could elucidate better than our meme creator. In fact, his criticism of Catholic doctrine - that Jesus is praying to himself, that Jesus, if divine, must be the Father to whom He is praying - relies on such a complete misunderstanding of this doctrine as to accuse Catholics of Sabellianism - a heresy which itself denied the Trinity! Thus "Unveil the Truth's" attack requires Catholics to both believe in the Trinity (to be attacked for it) and to disbelieve in the Trinity (for the attack to succeed) an obvious logical impossibility.

The moral of the story: you should probably at least have a minimal understanding of something before trying to attack it. Failing that, write an anonymous blog so as not to appear overly foolish.

1 comment:

In the Holy Bible we find that Jesus does pray to the Father , Of course This does not mean that Jesus is not God , because the Father and the Son are ONE (John 30 : 10) who is that ONE ? That ONE is God who is in (Mark 29 : 12) the Lord our God is ONE . Why ? Because :+The Son says “All things that the Father has , are #mine”(John16:15) .the Father has the Divinity and Holiness so The Son has them too. The Father and the Son are GOD (The ONE).(John 5:21),(John 14:9),(John 8:58)+The Holy Spirit is that ONE too (John 4:24) . The Father , The Son and the Holy Spirit are God (The ONE) (Matthew 28:19), (1 John 5:7) .God is the Father of all existence , He is the Source of all existence ,the Son is his given Word and His Holy Spirit is the life-giving Spirit .

Why does The Lord God show us that He prays calling the #Father ?the answer is : (1Peter 21 : 2 ) leaving us an example, that we should #follow #His #steps . Because He is the good ( John 10:11) and He is the Teacher ( John 13:13 ) . God was manifested in the flesh and He does teach us #practically what is the essence of the prayer that it is not just some words you repeat them 5 times or more daily , But it is so deep relationship between us and Him that He is not Just our God But also Heis our beloved #Father (John 1:12) .That is why He does teach us when we pray we call Him Our #Father who in Heaven (Matthew 6:9) , and without Him we would be Orphans who has no #Father (John 14:18) . During his being on the earth He does proclaim that He is in heaven , No one through his own authority has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man ( The Lord God Jesus) who is in heaven (John 3:13) He is in every where through His Divinity . He does teach us that we should ask His will to be done (Matthew 6:10), no matter what happened we ask His will to be done even if we do face the death (Matthew26:39) . He does teach us what is the great Love (John 15:13) and forgiveness (Mattew18:21,22) and he did all that #Practically (Luke 23:34) . Teachers at the schools they do teach the lessons themselves #practically Not for themselves , they do not need that because they know the lessons , but they do that for their students their students #need that to realize .

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